Paid parking eases jams at train stations
Perth's train station carparks are not filling up as fast as they did before the introduction of paid parking this year.
An analysis of latest Public Transport Authority figures show most metropolitan stations still have vacant bays at 9am with notable exceptions such as Joondalup, Edgewater, Fremantle and Warnbro full quite early.
The data is collected every Thursday from each station carpark.
It shows significant declines in early-morning vehicle numbers at many stations, especially on the Midland, Fremantle and Armadale lines, since the $2 parking fee was imposed on July 31.
For example, the Maylands station carpark was full by 7.30am on July 3 but only 86 per cent full at 10.31am on December 4.
On the Fremantle line, carparks at Loch Street and Daglish stations were full by 9am on July 3. Five months later, Loch Street was only half full at 9.14am and Daglish 85 per cent full at 9.07am.
The PTA believes paid parking has "weeded out hundreds or even thousands" of non-public transport users parking in station carparks.
PTA spokesman David Hynes said this resulted in more bays for genuine Transperth users.
"The vast majority of our carparks are now not reaching capacity, and those that do fill do so much later," he said.
Paid parking at all city train stations began with the introduction of SmartParker, where passengers can pre-pay parking fees.
Since its launch, 72,000 passengers in 83,000 vehicles have registered with SmartParker - 80 per cent of all parking customers.
As revealed in _The Weekend West _this month, paid parking has also caused a surge in passengers riding bikes from home.
In the days leading up to July 31 - and immediately after - record numbers of cyclists registered to store their bikes at secure shelters at 47 of Perth's 70 stations.
On average, about 0.7 per cent of all train passengers ride bikes to stations.
But since July, the percentage has jumped at many stations, including Greenwood, where it has risen to 3.5 per cent.
About 15,000 cyclists are now registered to use the bike shelters across the metropolitan area.
Mr Hynes said there was no evidence that paid parking had affected patronage on the Transperth system.
Transport Minister Dean Nalder said more than $60 million had been spent on 5000 extra parking bays at train stations across the system since 2008.
